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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29897112">A Story Book</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsimplymeagain/pseuds/justsimplymeagain'>justsimplymeagain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Darth Maul Needs a Hug, Gen, Not Beta Read, Order 66 Didn't Happen (Star Wars), Unofficial adoption story, Whump, i love how that's a tag</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:07:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,260</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29897112</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsimplymeagain/pseuds/justsimplymeagain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maul found himself in a Medcenter after a battle hard-won, the Medcenter being none other than the Halls of Healing. Maul also finds himself with an unsuspected guest who regularly visits his bedside.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Plo Koon &amp; Darth Maul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Story Book</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I just want to go home.”</p><p>“I just want to go home.”</p><p>“I just want to go home.”</p><p>Maul couldn’t tell you how many times he’s heard that, from various different sources. Enemies. Victims. Allies. It was a long list, bound to get longer as Maul’s life continues. He was sure of it. He himself has never uttered those words, not since he was a child and made to fear the aspect of it. Considering home to be a death threat and wanting to go there a punishable event. The man in the cloak, of course, did a wonderful job in making those facts as far as that young naïve stupid self was concerned. Of course, that man in the cloak who he feared as that child was someone Maul became loyal to – to a fault and his own destruction.</p><p>He hated that child for fearing that man and he hated that he at one time wanted the same thing.</p><p>“I just want to go home.”</p><p>Snarling and hissing to himself, his weakness and his foolishness. But there was hardly anything that could be done as he laid sore and beaten in a medical bed on coruscant. Beaten by a victory in a roundabout way. Sidious was dead. The clones no longer unseen puppets. And Maul – Maul didn’t know what to do with himself and worse, far worse, he didn’t know what the Jedi were going to do to him. Oh, he knows the senate wants him dead. Only silenced by the knowledge that it was because of him that the Sith amongst them was outed.</p><p>He didn’t know if they were still thirsting for his blood and laying a claim to his life or if the Jedi own that claim.</p><p>Specialized cuffs kept him restrained to the bed, kept him helpless and almost safe to be around.</p><p>So, there was nothing he could do but lay there in bed, waiting. His mind going back to that one line, the one thing that so many have said before.</p><p>But what do you do, when you have no home to go to?</p><p>Family dead, the family that matters anyway.</p><p>Purpose no longer there.</p><p>Even his hatred seemed exhausting today.</p><p>With a snarl he shifted in bed, the nurse droid immediately coming over to address his wounds and insist that he stays put. They won’t let a living doctor or nurse near him without supervision from a Jedi or clones. At least that felt familiar. With a hiss, he shoves the nurse droid away as best that he could before swinging his legs to the side of the bed so he could sit up.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>{{Please lay down, you require rest}}</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>“Kriff off.” It was all he could say to the droid. He wanted to stand but opted to wait for the room to stop spinning first. It took longer than he’d like. So naturally, when he tried to stand, he wound up on the ground. Robotic legs or not, if you couldn’t balance yourself or control yourself you might as well have hunks of durasteel weighing you down. It was perhaps here that he finally had enough. He let out a yell in his frustration and anger, hitting the ground because there was no one else he could hit at the moment. He ignored the wetness on his cheeks or how his vision was clouded.</p><p>Why!</p><p>Why!</p><p>Why!</p><p>It wasn’t fair!</p><p>It wasn’t! It really wasn’t!</p><p>What did he do to deserve this?!</p><p>It wasn’t until there was a taloned hand on his shoulder and a firm grip on his wrist did things calm down, at least enough that he was no longer yelling out or damaging his fist anymore than what it probably was given the sight of blood. He couldn’t look at the obvious Jedi who witnessed him in such a pitiful disgraceful state. He could hear cutting words in the back of his mind, reminding him of his failure and his weakness. That voice, those words – they always haunted him.</p><p>“I need to get you back into bed, can you stand?” He hardly knew who it was, or cared. He resisted, he didn’t want to be touched or helped or anything. But eventually, he found himself in bed. The offender trying to assist him was none other than the Jedi Master Plo Koon who happened to be close by in the Halls of Healing visiting other Jedi who were recuperating when he picked up Maul’s distress.</p><p>Maul fought against him, insulted him and hopefully drove him away.</p><p>He didn’t.</p><p>The foolish Jedi kept returning, kept trying to communicate with him. Maul nearly bit him a few times and tried to stab him with a spoon any other time. They won’t let him have forks or knives. He insulted them because of it. But no matter how offending he knows he’s being the old Jedi Master kept coming back. So, Maul tried to ignore him. That just seemed to encourage the Jedi to do the talking for Maul, mostly reading from a datapad. Sometimes information about the galaxy, sometimes stories.</p><p>Maul won’t admit that he preferred the stories over the information and that somehow his favourite ones were the ones read most often. Those ones always had happy endings, such stupid notions. But Maul listened.</p><p>One day, Plo Koon never showed up and Maul won’t admit that he asked the nurse droid where the Jedi Master was. The droid was useless of course, so Maul tested his own strength. He could stand and do most things now without too much pain wracking his body. He could possibly escape and steal his freedom.</p><p>And yet, he waited.</p><p>He’ll give it a few days.</p><p>Those few days passed with no sigh from Plo Koon returning, so Maul forced his way into the nurse droid’s data archives and further into the files. He was admitted a week ago and no one told Maul! As retribution, Maul destroyed the nurse droid and knocked the clone trooper out that was guarding his room. Apparently, he wasn’t enough of a threat to have Jedi watching him despite this being a wing at the Jedi Temple, there was also the possibility that they were stretched thin trying to be peacekeepers again.</p><p>Who cared!</p><p>Not Maul, no he made his way down to the room where Plo-the Jedi Master was being kept. He was in a capsule of specialized air so it was jarring almost to see him without his mask. But it was him. Maul knew it. Felt it.</p><p>He checked the datapad to see the state of his injuries and how serious it was. He would live, Maul swallowed down the relief he felt. It was nothing.</p><p>Maul might as well leave, there was nothing keeping him here anyway. And yet, he pulled up a chair and spoke in a quiet baritone voice and recounted his favourite story that was read to him several times now. Word for word, he gave it back to the unconscious Jedi. It was the least he could do, a kindness for a kindness. If Plo Koon ever realized that this happened, it wasn’t for Maul to speculate or know. He didn’t care anyway.</p><p>By morning, Maul would be gone. Only a chair left in its place would speak of his presence.</p><p>A year later, coruscant time, a physical book of that very story would show up unannounced with no name attached saying who it’s from. But Maul knew that the Jedi Master would be smart enough to figure it out.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I couldn't help myself, the only one I could think of that could handle Maul was Plo Koon.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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